Fence



J. H. GRAIN.

(No Modem FENCE.

No. 327,384. Patented Sept. 29, 188,5.

NVENTO? #orne y lUNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE",

JAMES HARVEY GRAIN, OF JUNCTION, ILLINOIS.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 327,384, dated September 29, 1885.

(No modeh To all whom, it may concern.-

Be it known that I, JMES H. GRAIN, of Junction, in the county of Pulaski and State of Illinois,have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Fences; and I do hereby declare the following to be a full, clear, and exact description ot' the invention, such as will enable others skilled in the art to which it appertains to make and use the same.

My invention relates to an improvement in fences.

The decay which invariably takes place between awooden picket and a wooden rail to which it is secured tends seriously to shorten the life of a pale-fence, and has induced those interested to try to devise some means of remedying the evil. The natural tendency was to substitute metal rails for the wooden, and numerous devices of such a character have been constructed. Among these may be mentioned a single wire bent to make a turn around each successive picket, staples adapted to embrace iron rails and enter the pickets, thereby locking the pickets thereto, a rail formed of two strands of wire separated at intervals to admit of inserting a picket between them, and a rail formed of a single strand of wire, the pickets being secured thereto by wrapping a Wire around the rail and pickets. While these constructions have proved more durable than the wooden rail and picket form, they have proven obj ectionable in many particulars, and have not come into extensive use. The main objections have been the difficulty of inserting a new picketin case of breakage, the slotting or shouldering of the wire rail to prevent lateral displacement where the staple-fastening was used, and the liability of displacement where the pickets were simply inserted between the two parts of a rails, or held to the rail by a wire wrapped around the rail and pickets.

The object of my present invention is to provide a neat, inexpensive, and durable fence, which can be quickly and easily repaired in case of breakage ot' pickets, and in which the pickets or pales will be securely locked in position.

With these ends in view my invention consists in certain features of construction and combinations of parts, as will be hereinafter described, and pointed out in the claims.

In the accompanying drawings, Figure l. is a view of a section of the fence, and Fig. 2 is a detached view of a piece of the cable with the picket-securing wire in position thereon.

A A represent two consecutive posts in a line of fence. B B represent the upper and lower rails,to which the pickets C are secured.

The rails B B consist of cables preferably formed by twisting together two strands of wire or strips of any suitable material of sufficient size to sustain the weight of the pales and the strain to which it is liable to be subjected.

Wires b, conveniently of lesser diameter than the cable wires, are interwoven in the cable in sections of suitable length to wrap around the successive pickets, and by twisting or otherwise securing the ends of the sections they serve to lock the pickets secure] y to the cables.

The pickets may be of any desired size or shape,and it is not necessary that they should be provided with transverse grooves or shouldered, since the wire sections b when drawn snugly about the pickets will embed themselves suiiiciently in the wood to prevent any displacement of the pickets.

It is evident that in case of breakage the ends of the wire sections embracing the pickets may be released, the broken picket removed, and a new one secu red in its place without disturbing in the icast the other portions of the-fence.

It is evident that more or less than two wire strands might be employed in the construction of the cable, and that the pickets might be provided with transverse grooves or shouldered to receive the locking-wires, and other slight changes might be resorted to without departing from the spirit and scope of my invention; hence I do not wish to limit myself strictly to the construct-ion herein set forth 5 but,

Having fully described my invention, what I claim as new,and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is

1. In a fence, the combination, with acable consisting of two or more strands of wire, of short wires interwoven in the cable and adapted to be secured. together as described, to form loops for the pickets.

2. Cable for picket-fences, consisting of two IOO or more strands of wire twisted together and In testimony whereof I have signed this a series of short wires interwoven with the speeifieatiouiu the presence of two subscribstrzmds of the cable, substantially as and for ing witnesses.

the purpose set forth.

5 3. The combination, with a cable cousist- JAMES HARVEY GRAIN.

ing, essentially, of two or more strands of` wire vtwisted together, of a series of short NVitnesses:

wires interwoven with the cable and adapted J. F. PARKER,

to be united in pairs for the purpose of form- H. M. MORROW.

Io ing pieketloops, substantially as set forth. 

